L.A. River Cleanup

Photo by Mark Mauer Saturday, May 17 marked the annual cleanup of the LA River that Friends of LA River (FOLAR) sponsors and coordinates. We found ourselves at a rather beauitful stretch near San Fernando and Division a little north of Elysian Park.
Click here to read about the cleanup at LA Daily.
1/20

Photo by Mark Mauer Armed with snacks, hats gloves, and lots of water (temperatrues got close to 100 around mid-day), FOLAR folks gave us some trash bags and sent us on our way.
2/20

Photo by Mark Mauer A pretty quiet beginning. Not a ton of people yet, but it was still early.
3/20

Photo by Mark Mauer A grove of palm trees in the river bed actually made the job a lot easier. Not only did they keep us out of the sun, but they caught a ton of trash on their trunks, making cleanup really simple.
4/20

Photo by Mark Mauer Besides the literally hundreds of plastic bags scooped up and carted away, here's a batch of goodies found in the river:
LAPD crime scene tape.
6/20

Photo by Mark Mauer Arundo donax, an invasive bamboo-like plant that would ideally be removed from the LA River. But if it's not done carefully - removing all of the cuttings - it will just spread re-root, and start growing further downstream.
7/20